Embodiments of the present invention relate generally to searching a corpus of information and more particularly to searching a business object based on an indexed composite document representing the business object.
Business objects such as documents, tables, etc., stored in a database or other repository can be searched via applications that use, maintain, or access the information therein. In an enterprise application or other application that provides for searching a business object, typically does so through a Structured Query Language (SQL) or similar query. For example, a user can specify though a user interface one or more attributes of the business object to be found. Using the specified attributes, a query can be run against the business objects and records containing the specified attributes can be returned or reported to the user.
However, there are many limitations with using an SQL query or similar languages or methods to search a database or other corpus of information. For example, in order for attributes specified as a condition of the search to be effective in identifying relevant records of the business object, the user should enter the appropriate attribute names. However, this requires a correct knowledge of the attributes and their names. Use of incorrect names as search criteria can filter the search results in unnecessary or undesirable ways. As a result, users may exclude some criteria that they intend to filter on if they do not know or are not sure of the correct attribute name. In such cases, too many results may be returned. Furthermore, the results are not ordered by relevance such that the important entries appear at the top making it hard for the user to locate what he is looking for. Hence, there is a need for improved methods and systems for searching business objects.